


Drowning in the Hologram of You

by storm_ice



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bittersweet, M/M, Multi, No Apocalypse, Romance, just demons haunting all the kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 12:11:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17981096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_ice/pseuds/storm_ice
Summary: Third person narrative, following the Umbrella Academy in a non-apocalyptic world. ya boi klaus has some demons, but im sure you already knew that ;)





	Drowning in the Hologram of You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I'm making this to spread the love for my favorite umbrella academy characters, as well as to work on my writing! comment if you like! 
> 
> hehehe this will be have some noncanon elements...
> 
> comment if you have any conspiracies!

It was dusk.

Klaus was sitting on the rooftops, gazing at the mounting darkness. The edges of the sky were tinged red from the setting sun, and the partially-shining moon was already far above the horizon. Below the horizon, everything was cast partially in light, partially in shadows. The tallest buildings shone in the fading light, and the buildings behind them were cast in their long shadows.

Klaus sighed, cigarette pulled from his mouth. He always felt calmer with the world in a twilight, but he knew the following darkness held threats unique to him.

He had been twelve when his adoptive father, now long-dead, had locked him in a crypt and told him to face his fear of the dead. He could still see the pale, formless specters swooping in towards him, hear their haunting voices. He had been locked in there for hours, and the damage that experience left on his psyche was enough to haunt him for eons. Their voices echoed in his head, and Klaus had to tell himself to focus on something else, anything else, to replace the sound of his name being repeating in ghostly cries.

He had to keep the demons at bay. He had to stay buzzed to keep his senses dulled, or else the worst experiences would come back into his mind and he would be helpless against them. Right?

He had this conflict with himself every waking hour. Every day of his life in that awful house with that awful man, Klaus had been told he had so much potential, that he could unlock so much power, that he was only scratching the surface of his abilities. He had grown up watching the power of his siblings increase while his stagnated due to his fears. And instead of facing them, he hid. Behind drugs, behind jokes, behind anything that could keep people from seeing just how difficult it was for him to move through life. He wasn't depressed, noo, not at all. Just afraid.

He stood up, turning to face the descending light in the distance. It was red. The sun set the same way every day, but it seemed to be especially malevolent this night, somehow. Klaus shrugged off that thought and decided to do something about the hunger he felt before it got to the point of feeling like it was gnawing inside.

He saw Ben staring at him, looking surprised.  _Oh, so we're leaving early today?_

"Yeah, figured I may as well see if anyone's up for a little evening Denny's run."

_you know as well as I do, they won't listen to you._

"well, not Vanya!"

Ben scowled. _In this state? You know you can't-_

"Come on, I owe her at least this," Klaus accented his words with a flick of the wrist, and strutted towards the stairwell. "Vanya, sweet, it's time for a little haunting, whaddaya say?"

He descended the fire stairs, Ben following behind skeptically, Klaus humming the whole way.

 

After averting the apocalypse, Number Five hadn't felt success for saving the world. No, he felt...useless. His entire life, he had focused on this one goal, and now he had achieved it, he had no idea what to do next. He had the impulse to jump back, change things so they wouldn't just end like this... but he knew it was no use. His abilities to time-travel weren't perfect and he hadn't the slightest clue of what would have ended the apocalypse better than what actually had gone down. He knew lots of scenarios would have been better, but he wasn't sure if any of them would have ended the apocalypse on such certain terms.

No, it was likely this was the most stable course of events, though it contained distressing terms for his family. The apocalypse was over. And Number Five had lived to see the certain end of it.

So now what?

 

Grace was putting dishes away in the kitchen. She had left them to air, and now was the perfect time to put them away before going up to the balcony and admiring the contents of her gallery. She smiled. Each plate and pan held a memory for her, whether it was from ten years ago or ten hours ago. This morning, she had made pancakes for Number Five. Her smile faded slightly, remembering she had never gotten to name him.

Well, he would decide one for himself. It was only right, seeing as Number Five had been taking care of himself for nearly fifty years.

She filed away that thought and refocused on arranging the rest of the plates back into their cupboards. Most were plain white china, but her favorite plates had small flowers glazed along their edges. They were yellow and blue, with thin green stems and leaves twining them in a circle along the whole edge. She put them in the same cabinet as their matching bowls, cups, and tea set. She smiled, her task done. Spinning around, dress twirling with her, she headed for the stairs, ready to sit down, process the day and move on to the next.

 


End file.
